Catch Me When I Fall
by littlestkitten
Summary: Yuuri no longer minded tripping, not when he had such an amazing man to catch him.


Title: Catch Me When I Fall

Name of Author/Artist: saratu

Name of Recipient: glass_icarus

Pairings/Characters: Conrad/Yuuri

Rating: G

Warnings: None

Disclaimer: I don't own KKM.

Original Request: Conrad/Yuuri, catching and falling.

Summary: Yuuri no longer minded tripping, not when he had such an amazing man to catch him.

A/N (if applicable): I wrote this for a Christmas exchange over at kkm_xmas. I figured I'd post it elsewhere just in case not everyone saw it there. Hope you enjoy!

The first time Yuuri had fallen for him it had been on a bleak cold day not long after he'd first come to Shin Makoku. He had slipped in a decidedly un-kingly way and would have ended up splattered with mud if not for his protector. Conrad had just looked down at him and smiled that reassuring smile before gently putting him back on his feet. Yuuri had been embarrassed, and had it been anyone else, he would have been more so. But for some reason this man seemed to be able to smooth away all of his worries, even if Yuuri had hardly known him at the time.

The next time had been only a few weeks later. This time it had been even worse because it was in front of the dour general that Yuuri was convinced hated him. Conrad had chuckled gently before once again dusting him off and setting him down. Yuuri had decided then that Conrad's laugh was one of his favorite sounds in both worlds. He made it a goal to hear it as often as possible, even if it had to (unfortunately) be accompanied by Conrad's awful jokes.

It wasn't just physical falls either. Yuuri had always known he made a rather mediocre king and he always seemed to ruin whatever diplomatic function he was a part of. The worst of which possibly being the time he'd accidentally spilled water into the lap of a noblewoman. How was he supposed to know that such an action was the traditional way to appoint a consort? Wolfram had been furious, Gwendal 's eye had started to twitch, and Gunter had burst into tears. Conrad, however, had simply leaned in and told him how to reverse it. His other advisors might do more to run the country, but he knew which one he could not survive without.

It wasn't until he'd seen the man in another country's colors, serving a different king, that he realized how much he relied on Conrad to catch him when he fell. He felt like he was spinning out of control, the ground was racing to meet him, and there were no gentle arms to lesson the impact. It was worse than the time he'd been thrown off of Ao with nothing to break his fall. He wanted his savior back.

So when they'd found out that Conrad's betrayal had been forced, Yuuri could only sigh in relief. He didn't care about any further suspicions, nor did he care to investigate any more, all he cared about was that Conrad was back and this time he promised to stay. All he'd wanted for a while now was to be held in those strong arms and he wasn't about to let some silly laws get in the way of that.

He soon found, however, that laws and protocols weren't the only things keeping them apart. If anything it was Conrad who refused. Guilt created a gulf between them that seemed impossible to cross. In the dark of the night (after being kicked out of bed once again) he almost even considered going to Anissina for an invention to fix it. Surely severe Maryoku exhaustion would be better than this gnawing emptiness he felt every day Conrad was absent?

But life went on, even if Yuuri was not quite ready for it. It wasn't until he was being tossed off a cliff that he realized how badly he'd been failing at keeping up. Yuuri had thought he would die for sure. His last thought before he hit was that he was always making messes for his advisors and it was almost fitting that he should make just one last gory one for them to clean up.

But the impact had not been the shattering one he'd expected. Instead it was almost soft, and as they rolled together across the forest floor Yuuri reflected that they really needed to stop meeting this way. Staring up at the man who had saved him in so many ways he felt his heart race and thought that maybe he was falling in another, almost scarier way. He was glad when Conrad broke the embrace, he didn't need another embarrassment to add to the growing list.

The most recent fall had been one that he could not easily recover from. He'd finally seemed to cross the line with Wolfram, although his latest crime seemed no worse than any one that had come before. Their engagement was broken and Wolfram had moved out of his life as quickly and violently as he'd come. Yuuri was left dizzy and disoriented by the events and stumbled around in a daze. He was not surprised when Conrad caught him one morning and soothed the lingering vertigo away with a gentle smile. There was no need, after all, for Yuuri to be left stumbling after a fiancé he'd never loved when there was someone far more capable of making him happy.

Their love did not come easy for either of them. Then again, nothing ever came easy for Yuuri so he was not exactly surprised that it would be the same in this. They stumbled and fell most of the time, barely keeping their footing on the rocky ground of their relationship. But their foundation was firm and all it needed to be stable was some smoothing down. And Yuuri no longer minded tripping, not when he had such an amazing man to catch him.


End file.
